Cleanliness is next to Godliness… and Profit!

I thought I would share a little lesson about cleanliness and why it is so important in the resale business.

I’ll start with the obvious. No one wants to purchase a used item that appears used when it arrives. The first thing we want customers to think when they open their package is “Oh my! It’s perfect!” or something along those lines. Cleaning an item before taking the photos and writing the descriptions is incredibly important too. I’m a collector of glassware and when I come across a listing online that shows a layer of dust or crud on the piece my first thought is how on earth can the seller know that this piece is in the condition they describe, for beneath a thin veneer of age old dust and dirt might lurk all manner of nicks or scratches. Those listings I wander away from immediately unless the price is just too spectacular not to take the risk.

The reason I’m writing this however is to highlight another matter entirely. I just received in the mail a signed Steuben hand cooler. I purchased it online knowing full well what it was as I’d sold an identical one not long ago myself, I did wonder though how the seller in question (not a Ruby Lane dealer I will add) did not notice that marking on the base.

The mystery was swiftly cleared up when I opened the package and inspected the contents, for there on the base was the majority of the remnants of a sticky price label. The top layer of the label had been peeled off to conceal the original price, but the bottom layer was still intact and there, right at the edge of the hand cooler, I could see the tiny little S that is the beginning of the Steuben signature.

So you see, cleanliness is not just a matter of providing a professional service to our customers, it can also directly affect our bottom line.